The Sober Proprietor of a Bar on Avenue B

Handsome Dick Manitoba retains his no-frills vision.CreditDaniel Krieger for The New York Times

By Foster Kamer

Dec. 1, 2015

True artifacts of the East Village’s punk heritage are few and far between these days. One of the few is Manitoba’s, on Avenue B.

In keeping with the no-frills brand of music of its namesake publican, Handsome Dick Manitoba, the place is not exactly plush. There is a photo booth. There is a bar, with workmanlike bartenders. And there is a jukebox, with a selection that ranges from T-Rex to Louis Armstrong.

The real draw may be the walls, which are covered in photos and keepsakes provided by Mr. Manitoba, 61, and not just from the various bands he’s played in, which include Dick Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom, a stint in MC5 and the original lineup of The Dictators (who have a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s punk wing).

There are pictures of Joan Jett, Deborah Harry, Lester Bangs and The Ronettes, many of them signed and dedicated to Mr. Manitoba, and a page from Elmore Leonard’s 1988 novel “Freaky Deaky” in which one character asks another if he has ever heard of Handsome Dick Manitoba and the Dictators. (The character hasn’t, earning the response, “See, you don’t everything, do you?”)

Since 2004, he has been the D.J. of his own program on Sirius XM Radio. He still tours with The Dictators NYC. But his most unlikely gig may be that of bar owner, given that he went sober long before Manitoba’s opened in 1999.

“I haven’t had a drink of alcohol, except by accident, in 33 years,” he said.

A self-described “New York Jew,” Mr. Manitoba (born Richard Blum) was raised in the Bronx neighborhood of Gun Hill Road. He was bar-mitzvahed at the Pelham Parkway Jewish center and is a Yankees fan. One of his many tattoos is of the team’s logo.

He said his mother and father discouraged his interest in rock and roll when he was a teenager. Now he’s the father to a 12-year-old boy, who isn’t into punk. “The fact that he is developing his own sense of self at a young age, to me, is 10 times more important than: ‘Look at my son! He’s just like me!’ ” he said.

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A shot and a beer.CreditDaniel Krieger for The New York Times

He started out as a roadie, which eventually turned into a job singing for the Dictators, in 1975. After the band disbanded in the early ’80s, Mr. Manitoba was part of various groups that included various iterations of The Dictators. In the early ’90s, he found himself driving a cab, addicted to heroin. He attended meetings, got clean and ripped up the hack license.

“I’m not a big God fan, but I knew if I made that leap of faith, everything would be O.K.,” he said.

He tended bar at Sin-é, a rock club on St. Marks Place (long gone), and 2A (still around). He saved his money and borrowed from friends (which he paid back “with 5 percent interest,” he said), until he was able to open his own place.

On a recent evening, as he was getting ready to leave for the night, a bartender introduced him to a fan who had just gotten into town from New Orleans and had come straight to Manitoba’s.